Janice Battersby
Janice Bernadette Battersby (née Lee) is the mother of Toyah and step-mother of Leanne through her former marriage to Les Battersby. Toyah was the result of a fling Janice had with Ronnie Clegg when she was sixteen. Ronnie wanted nothing to do with his daughter and so Janice raised Toyah on her own until Les came along. They were married in 1994, with Janice coming to treat Leanne as her own. Moving into 5 Coronation Street in 1997 after it was repossessed by the council, the Battersbys were highly unpopular due to their antisocial behaviour, particularly from Les and the girls. Janice was usually the sole breadwinner, as Les would do anything to avoid work. In 1997, she was working at Baldwin's Sportswear when it burned down. She then gained a job at Mike's new factory Underworld, where she would remain until 2011. Despite her longevity, Janice was consistently rude to her various managers and enjoyed spreading gossip among some workmates and picking on others. Eventually Janice got fed up with Les and left him for Dennis Stringer. Les was so upset that he attempted suicide, and while driving him to hospital Dennis was killed in a car crash, devastating Janice. A later attempt at a reconciliation with Les failed as a result of interference from Cilla Brown. Janice divorced Les and later had relationships with policeman Mick Hopwood and plumber Roger Stiles. Janice finished with Mick after he started a fight with Les leading to Les being unfairly imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, while Roger dumped Janice in 2008 when she and Leanne stole a lottery win from a syndicate at the factory. Janice was subsequently prosecuted and given community service. In 2010, she fell for her lodger Trevor Dean and the following year she accepted his invitation to go travelling around the world with him, leaving Weatherfield for good. Biography 1965-1996: Early Life Janice Bernadette Lee was born on 17th June 1965 and grew up in Newport Street, Weatherfield with her sister Janet. Janice left school at 15 and was already bringing in a wage when she fell pregnant aged 16, the result of a teenage romance with Ronnie Clegg. Ronnie and Janice lived in Oldham for some time but separated in when Toyah was only two years old. Ronnie moved away, although he did maintain some contact by sending occasional letters to Janice and informing her when he changed address, but never wrote to Toyah directly. For the most part, Janice raised Toyah as a single mother until she began a relationship with Les Battersby who she later married in 1994, officially changing Toyah's surname at the same time. The Battersby family were anti social and prone to disputes with neighbours and were moved around several times by the council over the next few years until they were rehoused in Coronation Street in July 1997. 1997-2005: Arrival and troublemaking Within moments of moving in to Coronation Street, the family had caused trouble as Leanne and Toyah stole flowers from Frescho and a drill from Bill Webster to give to Janice and Les. Sick of being moved on by the council due to disputes, Janice was keen for her family to tow the line, although her idea of this was very different from neighbours like Percy Sugden and Curly Watts. Leanne and Toyah playing their music loud at all hours and keeping the neighbours awake was a particular sore point and when Curly snapped and broke Leanne's CD player, Janice was fully supportive of Les using violence to sort Curly out. In the summer of 2005, Janice to her horror discovered that she had nits. Drunkenly, she asked Sean Tully to shave her head. When she saw her bald head in the mirror she was appalled. A couple of weeks later she had a mud fight with resident Claire Peacock on the Red Rec after Claire called her a "pug faced scumbag". 2006-2007: Car accident In early 2006, Janice and Leanne were involved in a car accident, when Danny didn't ask Kevin Webster to perform a full service on the car. They crashed into Gail Platt's front wall. Since then Janice became increasingly angry at the Websters, leading to a rivalry with Kevin's wife Sally, Janice's co-worker at Underworld. The rivalry came to a head on 27th February 2006, when Janice was sacked by her employer Danny Baldwin, and shortly after she was punched by Sally, in the middle of the Rovers Return Inn. She left the street in shame. 2007-2008: Romance with Roger Stiles In January 2007, Janice's heating broke down and she called plumber Roger Stiles to fix it, who turned up late. After socialising somewhat, Roger asked Janice to go away with him for a few months to France, which she accepted. She returned alone in March and Roger returned in June. She found out that her stepdaughter Leanne was a prostitute; after everyone found out the news, Janice got into a brawl with Kelly Crabtree. Janice and Roger reconciled, and Roger gave Leanne a loan for Valandro's, the restaurant she planned to open with Paul Clayton. His lack of money meant he struggled to pay his rent, so he moved in with Janice. Leanne's restaurant burnt down. A few weeks later, Paul told the police he and Leanne had set the place on fire for insurance money. Janice was furious with Leanne for lying to her. 2008-2010: Lottery scam In September 2008, Janice and Leanne discovered that one of the Lottery syndicate tickets for Underworld was a winner, to the tune of almost £25,000. Initially willing to tell the other girls of the win, Janice decided to keep quiet after some persuasion from Leanne. They claimed the winnings by setting up a bogus bank account in Rosie Webster's name. In the meanwhile, Rosie vanished, much to the worry of Kevin and Sally. When they found out about Rosie's win they began to wonder if she had absconded with the cash. Unable to live with her guilty conscience knowing the truth about the money, Janice eventually came clean to Sally and Kevin the following month. She was arrested while at work in the factory. Roger later found out about the scam from the factory girls. This led to the departure of Roger, who had a row with her over the scam and left the same day. Janice was left on the street in tears as Roger drove away. Leanne saw her from her upstairs window and callously just shut the blind. In Novmber, Janice went on trial for the scam alone, as she had agreed to keep Leanne's name out of it. She received a community service sentence, much to the annoyance of the colleagues who she had betrayed. The following month she started her work placement at the canteen at Weatherfield General Hospital and was initially delighted to discover that her supervisor was Emily Bishop, who she saw as a pushover. However, she was proven wrong as Emily was very strict with her. 2010 onwards: Trevor Dean In 2010, Janice welcomed in new lodger and binman Trevor Dean. She had conflict earlier on with him due to him refusing to take her bins, but they got along. She was upset when he had interests for her boss Carla Connor and began spending more time with her. Janice was nearly out of work when the factory was blown up by ex-factory boss and killer Tony Gordon, but temporarily worked under the viaduct with her co-workers when Nick Tilsley set up a rival firm Nick's Knicks there. Trevor had later ended his relationship with Carla after briefly working in the factory, and left Weatherfield to try to sort things out with his ex-girlfriend. During a tram crash in December 2010, Janice put her medical skills to use by helping out with the injured. In January 2011, she met a van driver named Gaz at a Rovers' singles night and had agreed to go on holiday to Tenerife with him the following day. However, she got too drunk and wasn't allowed to board the plane so had to go home. On her return she interrupted a burglar who ran out of her flat and pushed her over, which terrified Janice. She briefly stayed with Leanne and Peter Barlow at 9a Rosamund Street but after outstaying her welcome with Peter and realising that she couldn't live in the flat again, moved in with Julie Carp. In March 2011, Trevor had returned to the area working as a binman again. They caught up. Janice later lost her job when she mouthed-off in the pub and tried to convince her friends they should strike as Carla had to reduce their hours due to problems with getting an order. Carla heard this and sacked Janice on the spot. She then began spending more time with Trevor. After he packed his job in and planned on travelling the world, and asked Janice to come with him. She did, and after a tearful goodbye to Leanne, they got in his car and left Weatherfield, not before soaking her old colleagues by getting Trevor to speed through a puddle. Janice was unable to attend Leanne's thirtieth birthday in July 2011, as she was in France with Trevor, however she sent a card. On the day of Tina McIntyre's funeral in June 2014, Leanne was called away to attend to Janice at Toyah's flat in Liverpool. While looking after the property, Janice had injured herself trying to climb through a window after locking herself out. By this point Janice had separated from Trevor. Toyah and Leanne regularly visit Janice, spending Christmas 2017 with her and also ring her regularly. Personality Nicknamed 'lippy' by Danny Baldwin, Janice was brash and bolshy and came from rough stock. Although she had a criminal record, Janice was not as anti-social as Les or even her daughters when they first arrived on the street in 1997. Unlike Les who was perfectly content in his ways, Janice did want to better herself and her family. Relationships Toyah Battersby Janice was 16 when she fell pregnant with Toyah. For two years, Janice lived with Toyah's father Ronnie Clegg in Oldham (when Ronnie wasn't in prison) until she finally threw her useless partner out. For the next few years, Janice struggled to raise Toyah as her a single parent, working several jobs. Leanne Battersby Leanne came as part of the package when Janice married Les in 1994. Leanne's own mother had walked out when she was a baby and from the moment and Janice quickly adapted to taking on that role. Although Leanne always called Janice by her first name and was clear when she was a teenager, that Janice was not her mother, the pair became very close and Leanne did consider Janice to be her 'mother' in all but name. Hobbies and interests Background information * In early appearances she was credited under her maiden name 'Janice Lee', although within the narrative of the show she was already married to Les by this point. * Janice's family, the Battersbys were controversially introduced by new producer Brian Park as a 'family from hell' * Janice was axed in 2005 but given a last minute reprieve by incoming producer Steve Frost. * Vicky Entwistle left the show in 2011 and the character departed to go travelling with old flame Trevor Dean. First and last lines "Yeah, well all I got was a message telling me not to come in." (First line, to Mike Baldwin) --- "Losers!" (Final line, to her friends) Appendices See also *Full list of appearances Category:Coronation Street characters Category:Battersby family Category:1965 births Category:1994 marriages Category:Residents of 5 Coronation Street Category:Underworld machinists Category:Residents of 14a Victoria Street Category:2011 departures Category:1997 debuts Category:Roy's Rolls staff Category:Articles in need of major additions Category:Articles needing completion Category:Residents of No.4 Montreal House